Chapter 1

The Red Pill

-:-

Young Theodore Lorne, or just Theo for short, stood silently as he stared emptily at the view of his hospital window.

Outside were the paparazzi. Like hyena’s they gathered for the meal they call a story.

The sight of beautiful and handsome reporters with their camera crew rearing to charge into Theo room disgusted the young man to no end.

While it was true that his actions this past weekend catapulted him to fame, they knew nothing of what happened and they irresponsibly spreader their false narrative for ratings.

He understood that this was their job and it was not personal.

Never the less, it was annoying especially when the star of the moment was missing his left arm and right eye, was wounded all over and was groggy from being comatose for 3 days.

Not to mention, he was very hungry. He could eat a horse with very little effort. That’s to be expected after 3 days of no food.

If you add the emotional baggage he was carrying, it would be understandable if Theo wanted nothing to do with anyone.

He wanted nothing more than peace and quiet.

Sadly, these 2 were luxuries the ‘Hero’ didn’t have.

The door opened and 4 people entered.

One of them was an old doctor with a face of a frog. He was most likely the one that took care of Theo during his time in lala land.

2 of the new comers were a familiar sight to Theo, though this only went one way.

2 of the 3 were dressed in outfits you’d normally find in a cosplay party or in a comic book conversion. A sane person would never wear such outfits so proudly when walking down the street.

Theo often wondered if the 3 and the others like them had any sense of shame.

The first one was a man that seemed to have swallowed a truck load of steroids. He had a chest bigger than most women, his shoulders were broad and his head was weirdly proportional to how massive his body was.

He was a handsome 30+ year old man with black hair, wore a steel gray spandex and had the Greek symbol for Omega at the center of his chest.

This was Omegaman

His powers were, though not limited to, super strength, super speed, near invincibility, can fly, x-ray vision and many more.

Omegaman was often considered as the strongest Super Hero in the world.

The second person was a woman who was clad in jet black armor that covered her entire body. It was nigh impossible to determine her age because her entire head was covered with in a black one way mirror helm.

She was the Super Hero known as the Crow and her armor was made to look the part.

What made Crow amazing was the fact that she had no super human ability despite being hailed as a Super Hero. All she had were her brains, her human body and a lot of skill.

A mere human who earned her seat among the gods.

Theo personally considered her as the greatest super hero of all time.

The last one was most certainly not a super hero.

If you look at his sleazy look and fine looking suite, it was easy to see that he was a politician of sorts.

“Standing already? It’s only been three days since you got your limbs chopped off. There’s no way you’re fit to even walk” said the doctor

“Lying down feeling sorry for myself is not my style doc.” Said Theo as he turned back to admiring the view outside his window.

It may be rude, but he didn’t want to see any of their faces. The mere sight of them pissed him off.

… maybe except the doctor…

Theo liked the doctor quite a bit

“So? What honor did I achieve to be visited by 2 of the most illustrious heroes in the world… and a person of questionable background?” said Theo

“That’s rude.” Said Omegaman.

Theo simply shrugged at Omegaman’s words.

Omegaman sighed and proceeded to the reason he was here for.

“First and foremost, we’re here to check on you. How are you feeling?” asked Omegaman

“I feel like I’m missing an arm and an eye. Why do you ask?” Theo replied sarcastically

“You’re surprisingly hostile. That’s very different from what was stated in your school record. Your instructors and councilors pegged you as a ‘calculating yet cooperative’. Were they wrong?” Said Crow with her voice heavily scrambled via voice synthesizer within her helm.

Theo was a highschool student enrolled in the Auxiliary Course of the world famous Hero Alliance Academy or HAA for short.

The Auxiliary Course was more or less the people who would never be seen in frontline combat due to the inherent weakness of their special abilities. They often worked behind the scenes and would never be credited for their contributions.

The Auxiliaries worked on transport, scouting, information gathering, plumbing, crowd control, garbage disposal, reconstruction and many more.

Theo himself belonged to the Production Division.

In leyman’s terms, he makes stuff. This could range from condoms to spaceships.

The Production Division was vital to any hero organization.

And just like all other Auxiliary Unit, the Production Division would never be credited for all the things they have done.

FYI: the Hero Alliance Academy was a learning institute created by the Hero Alliance, the largest Hero Organization in the world.

Since Omegaman and Crow belonged to the founding members of the Hero Alliance, it came to no surprise that they had access to the HAA’s school records.

And that pissed off Theo ever so slightly.

They think they could just look at a piece of data and immediately know everything about him?!

“People tend to change when a piece of rebar gauges into their eye socket and shish kababs their brain. For the supposed brains of the Heroic Alliances, I’m surprised you don’t know this. And I’m sure you already seen my medical records” replied Theo in a calm and sarcastic manner.

The two heroes and the sleazy politician looking guy turned to the frog-like doctor for answers.

The doctor sighed and began explaining what he knew

“As you have seen from the xrays, Theodore Lorne’s brain is perfectly fine. Whatever that healing gel he used was amazing stuff. It forcefully repaired the damaged tissue and completely eliminated any infections. It’s almost the same as the healing factor some of you heroes have.” Said the doctor with great excitement.

However, the doctor shifted into a more serious and sad tone.

“While the brain tissue itself was repaired, the mental synapses weren’t. Quite simply, young Theo here has undergone severe brain damage and would have become a vegetable if it wasn’t for that healing gel he used. For now, you can expect the typical side effects of brain damage of that scale. Emotional instability, character change, partial amnesia, mood swings, visual and auditory hallucinations. The works.” said the doctor.

“Oh my god!” said the sleazy politician. “Does that affect his abilities?! I heard that possesses the ‘Midas Alchemy’ ability requires massive amounts mental calculations. If his brain is damaged he might not be able to make the medical gel any-”

The next events happened in barely a second.

Theo grabbed a nearby chair and threw it at a wall clear of any personnel

Before the chair left his hand, it liquefied into a small amount of molten iron.

By the time Theo threw it, the chair was converted into 3 badly shaped spikes.

This was ‘Midas Alchemy’, the ability to transmute any material into any material with touch alone. The complex calculation took a massive load on the brain, thus normally it was impossible to transmute as fast as Theo did.

However, Theo has an ace in his sleeve.

As to what this ace was, that’s a story for another time.

“I seem to fine.” Said Theo in a cold voice.

He could guess what sleazy politician was after and this was one of the main contributors of Theo’s foul mood.

And true to form, sleazy politician went on the attack.

“That’s good to hear. My name is Alehando Ribis and I represent Senator George Wintchesmer. The good senator sends his praise and admiration for the heroic deeds. For such a young man to face overwhelming-” said the sleazy politician before Theo cut him off.

“I have neither the patience nor the energy to put up with your bullshit. What do you want.”

Though Theo wasn’t able to see it because he had his back on everyone, he could easily tell that Mr. Alehando cringed at his words. It must have felt pretty degrading for an adult to be addressed so rudely by a person who was still in his teens.

Never the less, Alehando swallowed his distaste.

He was the beggar here.

He had to get on Theo’s good side no matter what.

“Very well. To the point then. In light of your achievements, Senator Wintchesmer has sent me to offer you full scholarship on any school of your choice. Naturally this includes the HAA. Aside from that, the Senator would also cover all of your living expenses until you graduate. I say this offer is very beneficial to someone in your economic situation” said Alehando with full confidence.

True enough, the offer was extremely enticing for Theo

Theo was what you call a second generation naturalized citizen. His parents were immigrants that were able to gain citizenship in the Commonwealth. Theo followed suit when he was only 6 years old.

The Lorne family came from a third world country, thus it went without saying that they were poor by Commonwealth standards.

Mind you, Theo never thought himself as poor. His current lifestyle was ‘normal’ in his motherland’s standard.

From his perspective, the citizens of the Commonwealth had no idea what the word ‘Poor’ truly meant.

Thus, the offer of full scholarship was very enticing to people with the same background as Theo.

The Hero Alliance Academy was an expensive school. The only reason Theo was enrolled in it was due to a scholarship he gained when it was discovered that he was one of the few people who had the ‘Midas Alchemy’, a power that transmutes any form of matter via touch.

Sadly, despite having one of the best production based powers, Theo’s scholarship as not 100% and there was still a chance of losing it depending on his grades.

Theo’s parents were working in low paying jobs due to their low educational attainment (both didn’t graduate highschool).

The idea of lightening the financial he placed on his parents was very enticing indeed.

However, Theo wasn’t stupid.

He knew exactly what the Senator and his lap dog were after.

“So you’re after my ‘Omni Gel’ and you’re using a scholarship to buy it from me. Am I right?” said Theo in a cold voice

Mr. Alehando flinched. Clearly Theo was on the money

“N-no! That’s not it at all! Senator Wintchesmer is simply doing this to help out a young hero in need! He is doing his out of the goodness of his heart”

“Oh. Is that so? If that’s true then I apologize. Unfortunately, I am the type of person who distrusts politicians out of principle. Thank the good senator for me, but I’ll have to decline. When something is too good to be true, it normally is. Please leave and never come back”

“Wha-! Please wait! At least listen to what the Senator has to offer! I’m sure we can reach an agreement!”

For a few minutes, Mr. Alehando threw proposal after proposal at Theo. Each proposal was as enticing as the last. Tax breaks for both his entire family forever, financial support, free education for anyone Theo wanted, etc.

The list went on and on, but Theo silently stared outside the window without even acknowledging Mr. Alehando’s existence.

Eventually, the sleazy politician ran out of ammo and still didn’t get even a passing glance from Theo.

Another 5 minutes of silence passed until Mr. Alehando made his exit with the parting words ‘Please think about it. I’ll return so I can explain more on how I can help you’.

A few seconds of silence passed before Omegaman broke the ice.

“Hahaha. That was a bit mean, you know?” said Omegaman

“No its not. That’s because I’m going to treat you two the same way. What do you want.” Replied Theo

Theo knew he was being rude, but all of his respect for the ‘Super Hero’ people has evaporated after the incident 3 days ago.

Here’s a quick summary of what happened.

3 days ago, a terrorist group called the Black Bible led by a lunatic only known as ‘The Priestess of Cain’, or simply Priestess by the public, occupied a small shopping mall at the edge of the city. Their plan was to use the people they captured as a sacrifice to summon some demon.

FYI: This world/reality has EVERYTHING. Magic, aliens, time loops, galactic empires, monsters the size of planets, cosmic deities, etc.

There were about 30 people inside that shopping mall and this included Theo who lived a few blocks from said mall.

The standard SOP when an Auxiliary was caught in a situation such as this was to press the emergency button on their school ID cards and wait for a hero to show up and solve the case.

Unfortunately, the Black Bible knew of this as well. This was why they used a miniature EMP bomb that took out the power of everything within a 10 km radius. Naturally, Theo’s ID card was also affected by the EMP.

Another SOP when the ID emergency card wasn’t working was to simply sit tight and wait for backup.

While the HAA trained everyone in combat, an Auxiliary was understandably much weaker than those in the Hero tier. Despite having special abilities, said abilities were not strong enough to fight in the frontline.

Auxiliary’s normally took up a support role and almost never sees combat.

Theo would have done the same if it wasn’t for the fact that the Black Bible started their human sacrifice ritual the second they had the shopping mall under control.

Counting all people, including mall staff, there were around 100 civilians at that moment.

It only took 2 sacrifices for Theo to give the HAA SOP the middle finger and went on a killing spree.

He used the ace up his sleeve to its maximum effect and took down 12 of the 30 terrorists in a span of 10 minutes.

While he did this as silently as possible, he was eventually discovered after his 6th kill and a shootout ensued.

The good thing about living in a third world country was developing a tolerance to dead bodies.

Theo lived in a country where there were active terrorist cells, political warlords and drug cartels. Things were getting much better due to the newly elected iron fist president, but it was a literal shithole when Theo’s family left for the Commonwealth.

Nothing was more terrifying than watching a friend of yours shot right in front of you by a crackhead who had too much of the bad stuff.

Just so you know, Theo killed that same crackhead to avenge his friend.

Anyways, Theo’s experience around the dead and dying allowed him to kill without hesitation or mercy.

Sadly, the Black Bible terrorists were of the same disposition.

No… they were so much worse.

During their takeover, the Black Bible terrorist planted large amounts of explosive all around the building. It was probably a counter measure for the Heroes.

They probably thought Theo was a Hero or something because they didn’t hesitate to trigger the explosives.

The result?

Including Theo, 14 of the original 100 civilians survived. Naturally all of them were injured with varying severity.

Among the living, Theo was the worse off. His left hand was crushed beneath a massive slab of concrete while a rebar punched through his right eye.

Theo has always been the cautious sort. This was a product of living in a country that was once a hellhole.

He always carried an Omni Gel in case of any unforeseen circumstances. The Omni Gel was something he accidentally created when his powers first manifested. The Omni Gel was the sci-fi equivalent of the Elixir of the magic side.

It could forcefully clot even the most severe wound in an instant, regenerate some of the damaged tissue and completely remove any infection that said wound would normally bring.

Naturally, since the Omni Gel was more of a freak accident than an actual discovery, there were side effects.

The main side effect was the fact that it hurts like hell! It hurt so bad that Theo fainted the first time he ever used it.

Now that he knew how bad the pain was, he could prepare himself and not black out.

Thanks to the Omni Gel, he was able to avoid bleeding out or having his brain infected by who knows what.

In the rubble, he saw corpses of men, women and children. Some of them were crushed like road kill, others dismembered as if ripped apart by a monster.

Those images would haunt him for years to come.

And in that pile of rubble, he spotted the Priestess of Cain. Aside from a bruised leg, she was as fit as a fiddle.

Naturally, Theo believed that the Priestess being alive while more than 80 other innocents were dead was a grave injustice.

And such injustice was something he would never allow.

He grabbed a working gun, took aim at the Priestess who was begging for him to spare her life, and before he could pull the trigger, Omegaman tore through the debris and stopped him.

Theo must have fainted from sheer exhaustion because the next thing he knew, he was in the hospital where he was currently residing.

He then met the frog faced doctor and was filled in on the details.

How many died.

How many survived.

How the news was praising him as a brave young hero that faced insurmountable odds alone.

But most importantly, the news of the Priestess being alive and was in an unknown prison.

In short, 86 civilians were dead while the one that killed them was allowed to live on tax payer’s expense.

Theo was furious!

After the shit the Priestess has done, Omegaman allowed her to live?!

This was criminal negligence!

But the last info the frog faced doctor gave Theo was the one that really threw him off the deep edge.

Apparently, the Priestess has broken out of prison 4 times already!

The frog faced doctor was very cynical when he said that it would only be a matter of time before the Priestess would break out again and the cycle would begin anew.

No wonder the same criminal names repeatedly appeared whenever the Super Heroes fought. It was because those criminals kept breaking out of prison while the Super Heroes idiotically placed them back in!

The Super Heroes’ idiotic ‘though shall not kill’ conviction was only resulting in more lives lost!

Just like any children in this world, Theo also dreamt that he would become a hero one day.

After the Priestess incident, he was pretty sure his dream was no longer the same.

The truth was an extremely bitter pill to swallow.

After that, Theo had a couple of hours to think before Omegaman, Crow and Mr. Sleazy pants arrived.

And now, we reached full circle.

Theo kept his back towards Omegaman and Crow as he listened to what they had to say. He didn’t want them to spot the intense rage underneath his calm façade.

Omegaman stepped forward and spoke in an enthusiastic voice.

“In light of your bravery, the Hero Alliance Academy head instructors has decided to promote you from the Auxiliary course into the Hero course. Congratulations!” said Omegaman as he gave Theo a round of applause.

“Hmm…” replied Theo.

An awkward silence filled the air.

The normal reaction when an Auxiliary upon receiving the news that they would be moved to the Hero course was joy, disbelief and a bit of jumping. On rare occasions, there were some who would break into song.

Theo’s subdued reaction made Omegaman and Crow a bit confused.

“And your answer?” asked Crow

“I’ll have to refuse.” Replied Theo, much to the surprise of 2 of the greatest super heroes in the world.

This wasn’t the first time an Auxiliary was promoted into a Hero. Many have proven themselves to be more than the scope of their powers.

However, the number of times when an Auxiliary refused an invitation to ascend to the ranks of Hero could be counted in one finger. Quite simply, this was the first time in HAA history that an Auxiliary refused to become a Hero.

While Omegaman couldn’t hide his surprise, Crow was quick to calm down and realized that there was more to it than meets the eye.

“And your reason?” asked Crow.

“My left hand is a stump. My right eye is an empty hole. While I feel fine at the moment, it is almost certain that I have some form of brain damage that would affect my abilities. I hope you understand that I have no confidence of functioning as a Hero with these crippling handicaps.” Replied Theo.

Omegaman and Crow couldn’t help but nod in agreement.

While Theo’s left and right eye could be replaced with cybernetics, the brain damage was a whole different level.

The Midas Alchemist’s ability was closely tied to how powerful his brain was. If the brain was damaged, who knows what would happen if they forced him to use Midas Alchemy. It could make the damage worsen for all they know.

“Hmm… I’m surprised how well you understand your situation” said Crow

“I’m only human after all. I assume you understand more than anyone how fragile we are.” Replied Theo.

Crow simply chuckled in response. She made a head gesture to Omegaman and walked towards the exit.

Omegaman nodded at Crow and sent a parting massage to Theo

“I understand. Take your time and recover. However, the offer to join the Heroes course still stands. When you are confident that you’re up to par, come to us and we’ll welcome you with open arms” said Omegaman.

While still keeping his back towards the heroes, Theo waved goodbye to them.

Only the doctor and Theo were left in the room.

“That’s a nasty smile you got there kid” said the frog faced doctor as he chuckled

It probably wasn’t clear from where Omegaman and Crow were standing, but the doctor could spot Theo’s reflection in the window.

Theo had the smile filled with anger, excitement and a sense of superiority. It was as if he was mocking the 2 heroes for not seeing through his façade.

It was not a smile that would normally be associated with those who could be called ‘good’ or ‘sane’.

It was a smile of pure malice and evil.

“This is all your fault you bastard.” Replied Theo.

“Now don’t you pass the buck to me young man. The world presented you the red pill. You’re the one that swallowed it. I only added some side dishes here and there.”

The Red Pill was pertaining to the plot device used in ‘The Matrix’ movies.

At the start of the movie, the protagonist was given a choice by the mentor dude.

Take the Blue Pill and return to the life of blissful ignorance.

Or take the Red Pill and see the world as it was: A grim, disgusting and messed up world.

In Theo’s case, the Red Pill was shoved down his throat in the most violent way possible. And now, he was disgusted how insane his world was.

“They did say the truth will set you free.... I guess, in a sense, I am free…. Just not a happy kind of free. More like the ‘I want to blow shit up’ sort of free.” said Theo as he sat on his hospital bed.

“I’m a surgeon, not a psychiatrist. Take your crazy somewhere else” replied the Doctor

“At least play along man. You’re a doctor right? At least care for the mental health of your patients ”

The doctor went to the door and scanned the area outside. After making sure that no one was eavesdropping, he returned to Theo and whispered to his ear.

“Since you look like a decent kid, I’ll tell you a little secret. I’m technically not a doctor. At least, I don’t have a PhD. I’m what you call an underground doctor”

“Eh?! Then why are you here?!” asked the shocked Theo.

“Crow may be a genius, but when it comes to severe injuries and how not to turn her patients into vegetables, she’s as good as clueless. I may be an underground doctor, but when it comes to keeping people alive and fixing them, even Crow recognize that no one is better than me. And thus, I was brought here with the promise that Crow wont throw me in prison for my illegal practice. Smart girl. She’d make a fine scam artist or politician.” replied the doctor with a smile.

“Arent scam artists and politician one and the same?”

“HAHAHAHA! So true! Keep that pragmatic view of the world and you’ll go far kid!”

-:-

3 Days Later

Midnight

Hospital Underground Parking Lot

Theo was extensively checked for pretty much any sign of unforeseen complications by both the frog faced doctor and the actual doctors of the hospital.

The licensed doctors were particularly obnoxious of their test.

Not only was their hospital chosen to take care of the ‘hero’ of the week, they were also insulted that the great hero Crow chose the frog faced doctor to helm the care for Theo.

While they kept silent of their dissatisfaction, they showed their contempt by pulling out all the stops to prove that they were better than the frog faced doctor.

One problem though, Theo was surprisingly healthy.

Aside from the missing left arm and right eye, there were no complications what so ever.

Even the brain scans showed that his brain tissue was completely fine.

This was a testament to how powerful Theo’s Omni Gel was. Even the best medical technology of their time could not fix such severe injuries as complete as the Omni Gel.

Quite a few prominent doctors approached Theo with the intention setting up a deal for the Omni Gel. The money offered was quite substantial indeed.

The numbers were so big that Theo couldn’t help but suspect that these doctors weren’t on the up and up.

The nasty thing about taking the Red Pill was that Theo became suspicious of everything. He understood that he was probably just making mountains out of mole hills, but the core of his once held belief turned out to be a lie.

Who knows how much of this world’s ‘Good’ could be nothing more than a skillfully crafted façade?

Because of this, Theo refused all offers.

Surprisingly, the frog faced doctor showed no interest in the Omni Gel.

When asked why, doctor frog face answered:

“That thing will put my profession out of work! I’m making a mint in the underground scene. Don’t you dare share that Omni Gel with anyone, or I’ll cut off your manhood!”

Well, at least the frog faced doctor was honest unlike nearly everyone else.

As far as Theo was concerned, his hospital stay was relatively uneventful.

But the problem came when he was now fit to leave the hospital.

There was an army of paparazzi waiting on every exit of the hospital. There was no way to get out undetected by normal means.

And thus the reason why Theo and Frog Face Doctor were executing ‘Operation Dirty Laundry’. Instead of leaving the hospital in a week like what was publicly announced, Theo and the doctor made their exit 4 days earlier.

Just to be sure, the 2 set up another plan in motion.

The doctor was well known to be cautious. Whenever he did work, he would refuse to use any instrument that wasn’t his own. Because of this, he brought his own cutting implements, drugs, plastic gloves, clothes among many others.

Because of this, he often brought a big bag with him.

Thanks to Theo’s missing limb, he was able to barely fit in Frog Face’s bag.

Unfortunately, Theo now owes the good doctor a few thousand Rooks (the Common Wealth’s currency). As a poor student, the 5 digit debt literally made him cry.

Fortunately, the doctor was kind enough to make it a soft loan. Theo was allowed to take his time paying for it.

Theo, like most of the people in his motherland, had a poor man’s mentality. In third world countries, those who cant pay back debt was beaten to a bloody pulp and was thrown in some ditch where he’ll probably end up dying in.

In poor countries, deaths due to financial debt were so common that it’s not even funny.

As such, Theo was extremely terrified.

The frog face doctor might look like a kind old man, but who knows how brutal he could be if Theo didn’t pay back the debt as fast as possible. With the knowledge that the doctor was regular in the underground scene, Theo could easily see the doctor inflicting disturbing amounts of pain to those who crossed him.

Because of this, Theo spent the entire drive out of the business district inside the doctor’s bag while desperately thinking of potential ways to pay back his debt.

-:-

1 hour later

Vermilion City was the largest city in the Commonwealth. It started out as nothing more than a fishing town and expanded into a massive trading hub due to its function as a port city. This was one of the places where imports and exports via sea route were centralized in.

Theo’s apartment was located inland and was relatively far from the main city hub.

It was a rundown apartment located near Vermilion City’s (in)famously massive red light district. The locals call it the ‘Hell Hole’ because the area was the definition of Sin City.

Drugs, prostitution, slavery, gangs, cults, lunatics, hobos, assassins, black markets and pretty much every bad thing you could think of was in the Hell Hole.

Theo’s home was also near an extremely large scrap yard.

With the rapid rise of Vermilion City from a backwater town into multi-state area, it was expected that construction would kick into overdrive. As you’d expect, the rampant construction resulted in poor planning and lots of wasted materials.

If you add the fact that Vermilion City was often destroyed due to conflicts between Super Heroes and their enemies, then it would be expected that massive scrap yard would exist. All that debris had to go somewhere.

There was a fairly large area near the scrap yard filled with low cost housing. It cant be called a slum because the houses were decently made. However, you cant call it a suburbs due to house construction being chaotic and unplanned.

The area was crap, noisy and a bit stinky, but millions of not-exactly-poor people called this area home.

Calling it a mess would be accurate.

The beauty of living in such cramp condition was the cheapness of the rent.

Theo’s apartment was impressively cheap due to it being only a few meters from the scrap yard. The only thing separating his home from hundreds and thousands of tons of refrigerators, cars and other useless junk was a simply chain fence.

Theo was actually happy of this arrangement.

The scrap yard was a vital fuel for his Midas Alchemy. No one would miss a few hundred tons of useless junk disappearing.

As the doctor’s car approached their destination, Theo, who was already sitting on the passenger seat, noticed something very very odd of his apartment.

“Hey kid… I thought your place was in the poor side of town. There’s seems to be a fair bit of black vans out there” asked the doctor

“Yeah… nearly all of the people in this area cant afford cars.”

Theo’s apartment was a small rundown 2 story building with 8 rooms on each floor. Theo’s room was on the far right of the building on the first floor. The rent was cheap, electricity was erratic due to crappy electrical wiring but at least the water was consistent.

But most importantly, there were no black vans parked in front of it. Nor did it have a guy with an AK47 guarding the entrance.

“So… what now kid?” asked the Doctor.

Surprisingly, the doctor was very calm despite the fact that there’s a chance that they’ll be shot at in the near future.

But then again, he was a doctor of the underground world. Maybe getting shot was a daily affair to him.

Theo thought for a bit and said.

“Keep going until you spot a small convenience store. We’ll park there and proceed to my ‘secret hideout’” replied Theo.

“Secret hideout? HAHAHAH! What are you, a hero?” the Doctor mocked Theo with a wide smile.

“Just so you know, hideouts aka lairs are normally associated to villains.”

“Touché, young man. Touché.”

The car went past Theo’s home without slowing down.

The armed guard was cautious of them when they approached but relaxed the moment they went passed the house.

About 20 meters away, there was a fairly old looking convenience store. The parked on the parking lot right beside it.

Oh, Theo might call it a parking lot, but it was nothing more than a patch of land with nothing on it. Sooner or later, another low cost house would occupy it.

Theo and the doctor got out of the car and went straight to the chain fence that separated the low cost area and the scrap yard.

Theo touched the fence and activated his Midas Alchemy power.

The fence suddenly liquefied and fell to the ground.

“You people with powers sure are amazing.” Said the Doctor as he poked at the liquefied metal.

“This is nothing. Most of the heroes in the HAA have super strength and super speed in their repertoire. They could probably just rip in with their bare hands or jump over the fence entirely. Converting solid into liquid is laughably weak compared to that.” Replied Theo.

The 2 went through the hole in the fence.

Theo used his power once again to repair the hole before they went deeper into the scrap yard.

The scrap yard was home to many hobos, violent gangs and criminals.

The good thing about being among the poor and the desperate was that they don’t care about Theo since he’s as poor as they were.

Any effort to steal Theo’s belongings was worthless because, like them, Theo had nothing but the clothes on his back.

The walked for about 10 minutes until they reached an area filled with many types of refrigerators.

“Damn… quite a fair bit of new arrivals we have there.” Said Theo with a sigh.

“The entrance to your ‘secret base’ is in a trash pile of refrigerators? Isnt that a bit impractical? If I could recall correctly, Vermilion’s scrap yard gets more crap almost on a daily basis.” Said the Doctor as he observed the mountain of refrigerators in front of him.

“And that’s the beauty of it. Who would search an area where no sane person would place their secret base?” replied Theo.

“Good point.”

Theo approached the nearest fridge and touched it. The fridge suddenly liquefied and turned into a steel ball that was a size of a flea. Theo approached another fridge and performed the same thing on it. The steel ball grew ever so slightly larger every time Theo used his power on the fridges.

“What’s that?” asked the Doctor as he pointed at the steel ball on Theo’s hand.

“This is a few milligrams of Tungsten. The Alchemic Law of Equivalent Exchange states that if you want something, you have to pay the equivalent price for it. The total equivalent of a fridge is a pitiful amount of tungsten. Why? I don’t know. That’s just how it is.” Replied Theo.

Theo kept going until he found a simple chest type fridge with a red graffiti printed on the side. The graffiti stated ‘Insert Penis Here’

“Here we go.” Said Theo

“Really? ‘Insert Penis Here’? Potty humor is so childish.” Said the Doctor as he facepalmed.

“I’m a teenager. Sue me.”

The chest type fridge had a false bottom that could easily be pulled up with enough force. This was followed by a spiral stair case that went down about 200 steps.

At the end of the stairs was a massive vault door. A computer interface was embedded into the vault door with a simple message ‘Enter 100 digit password’ flashing on the screen.

“And I was just thinking how easy it was to enter your secret base. I guess I was wrong. But seriously though. 100 digit password? Isn’t that a bit too much?” asked the Doctor.

“The password in this door is unbreakable. I pride myself for creating such an ingenious system.” Replied Theo as he puffed his chest with pride.

“Oh? Is it alright for me to see it? I could copy it you know?” asked the Doctor

“Feel free to watch. Even if you know the trick behind it, I doubt you’ll be able to copy it.”

Theo used the Tungsten he made from the refrigerators and turned it into a really thin needle. He placed the needle in the middle of the computer screen and forcefully pushed it in.

Theo turned the needle and the sound of something unlocking echoed throughout the area.

“Eh? What happened?” asked the Doctor in confusion.

“Tis simple my dear doctor. I molded the tungsten needle into an extremely small key. That’s the secret of unlocking this door.”

“Da Faq?! Then what the hell is the password screen for?!”

“It’s mostly to troll would be trespassers. Imagine how long they would stand in front of the screen trying every combination in the book.”

The doctor couldn’t help but laugh at the simple yet cruel mechanism of the door. True enough, the door was night impossible to open unless the person was a possessor of the uncommon Midas Alchemy power and had prior knowledge on the doors mechanics.

The door split open and the sight that welcomed the two shocked the doctor greatly.

“WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!”

In front of the Doctor was large square space about 1 KM by 1 KM. The floor and the ceiling of the area was made of transparent material that allowed the doctor to see what was on top and at the bottom of the current floor.

Theo’s hideout had 3 floors.

The current floor they were on was the 2nd out of 3. It housed guns…. Lots and lots and LOTS! of guns.

Remember that scene in the Matrix movies where the protagonist summoned a large amount of guns before the final showdown?

The scene in front of Theo and the Doctor was exactly like that.

Pretty much every gun in history (minus the really high tech ones) was there and had at least 100 copies of it. Naturally the bullets were there as well.

The 3rd floor was filled with large assortments of mechanical wonders. A vast majority of them were combat drones of varying size. Some of them were as small as a human palm, and some of them were as large as tanks.

Some were obviously meant to fly, while others were for amphibious purpose.

The 1st floor was split in to 2 areas.

The first area was occupied with about 30 room sized computers and the massive air conditioning system required to keep them cool.

Despite being chopped up into 30 different parts, all of them were considered one entity.

This complicated device was called a ‘Quantum Computer’. This was a computer so powerful that it can hack everything in the world and no one would know the wiser.

The only thing that was capable of stopping Theo’s Quantum Computer was the more powerful version of it that belonged to the Hero Alliance.

The second area housed 5 large circular generator-looking things. Each of these generators were about 50 meters in radius and was as tall as the entire floor.

These things were called ‘Archon Generator’.

These generators were commonly known as the power source for the power armors used by the famed Hero Mechanicus.

Mechanicus was able to shrink the Archon Generators to the size of a fist without reducing its output. Sadly, Theo coudnt do the same thing at the moment. With enough R&D, he could probably reduce its size in the future, but the odds of him matching Mechanicus’ power armor was non-existent at the moment.

Despite the large number of amazing gizmo’s in Theo’s hide out, it was nowhere near enough to fill the massive 1 square kilometer area of each floor. Most of the floors were still very much vacant.

“I know I’m repeating myself here, but I just have to say it again…. WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!” the doctor roared at the top of his lungs.

Theo stood in front of the doctor and performed a graceful bow

“Welcome to Theodore Lorne’s hideout. Do enjoy your stay.”

The doctor quickly recovered and his shock quickly turned into rage for some reason.

“Hideout my ass! There’s no freaking way this is a hideout of a highschool student! Aren’t those Archon Reactors?! Those are top tier tech that most companies and terrorist groups would kill to have! And the guns! What the hell is with all the guns?! Are you trying to start World War 3?! And those mechs! What is this, Skynet?! Are you trying to make Judgement Day a reality?! How the hell-”

Suddenly, the doctor silenced himself. He pondered for a few seconds and arrived in a eureka moment.

“Don’t tell me… you have multiple powers?” asked the doctor

“Yup. But most heroes and villains have multiple powers anyway. It’s not particularly impressive” replied Theo.

The most common super ability and also the most unappreciated was Super Endurance. This allowed most hero to take a hit with hundreds of tons of force and walk it off.

Super Endurance was often paired with Super Strength, Super Speed, Flight and pretty most combat focused super power.

Because of this, most people with super power had more than 1 inhuman ability.

Sadly, Theo didn’t have such a convenient endurance boosting ability. Pretty much anyone with super strength can kill him with a single clean hit.

However, the doctor proved that he was no normal underground quack by accurately guessing what Theo’s second power was.

“With this much tech, I’m guessing that you’re a ‘Technomancer’. Am I right?”

Theo simply smiled at the doctor.

Similar to the Midas Alchemy, a Technomancer used the brain and was a power that specialized in creation.

Unlike Midas Alchemy, the Technomancer power didn’t have any effects that warped common sense and logic.

The Technomancer was an extremely rare ability that allowed the person to create pretty much any science based items as long as the person had the parts necessary to create it and a vague knowledge of how the item works.

Normally a Technomancer’s main concern was how to get the parts in order to create his machinations. The money required for the parts alone often disheartened Technomancers to build whatever they wanted.

No matter how much a person would want to build a giant bipedal mecha, the financial side of the equation would most certainly keep him from achieving his dreams.

Theo bypassed this problem due to his Midas Alchemy ability.

He could manufacture all the parts by himself via transmutation. VIVA LA RECYLCING!

The other main problem of the Technomancer was the knowledge required to make their dream death machine.

There were 4 means to gain the knowledge.

First was the fastest and easiest means: Find a Blueprint.

The main reason why Theo had so many guns was because all he needed to do was to search the internet for their internal mechanism, materials and other miscellaneous information.

This was also the main reason why Theo didn’t have any energy weapons. This was because he lacked the knowledge to make an extremely small power source strong enough to fuel the energy weapon’s massive power consumption.

Personally, Theo hated energy weapons. They lacked the UMPH sound of a typical bullet based weapon.

Chalk it up as personal taste.

The second means of gaining knowledge and also the second fastest was via touch.

Using a technique known as ‘Tracing’, the Technomancer ‘feel’ the machine via touch. He would feel the vibration of the gears, the electricity flowing through its wires, the information being processed through its circuits.

There’s no proper way to explain it. Only that Theo could ‘feel’ the machine.

This was how he got the knowledge on how to make the Archon Generator (a publicly displayed attraction)

Though he had to cut his touching short multiple times, the total time spent on tracing the Archon Generator was about 5 hours

The third and slower means of attaining knowledge was via sight.

It was more or less the same as touching because it used Tracing. However, since Theo wasn’t allowed to go near the object, the time required to extract information was much longer.

This was how Theo got the information for the Quantum Computer and a portion of information required for the Omni Gel. It took him at least a week to extract the knowledge for both.

The last, slowest and the most wasteful means of attaining knowledge was good old fashion R&D.

By using the knowledge gained from other means, Theo performed many trail and errors until he got what he desired.

Like anything that underwent R&D, Theo used up a lot of resources and time to make what he needed to make.

All of the drones in Theo’s arsenal were a result of 6 months R&D.

The Omni Gel was a few weeks of R&D, though it was mostly due to an accident. Let’s just say accidentally knocking a test tube filled with nanomachines into a medical solution was the best bad luck Theo has ever had.

The doctor couldn’t help but shiver in both excitement and fear after he found out that Theo’s powers were Midas Alchemy and Technomancery.

Technomancers were extremely rare and highly valuable.

Who do you think made the gadgets, spaceships, lunar bases, space stations and other high-tech gizmos that Heroes used?

The Heroes made them?

Some of them can, like Crow and Omegaman who were stupidly genius to the point of being OP.

However, most Heroes were fame hunting idiots. All they wanted was the glory and fortune attained from fighting off bad guys and what not.

And thus, Technomancers were extremely sought after due to their ability to create invaluable high tech support items.

Naturally, evil villains sought Technomancers for the same reason.

All in all, Technomancers were so in demand that both sides of the good-evil spectrum were willing to shell out tons of cash just to get them to work for their side.

This actually confused the doctor.

“If you’re a Technomancer, why not just tell everyone that you are. You’d be swimming in cash for the rest of your life if you do that.” Said the Doctor.

Theo chuckled in response

“Originally, my plan was to get my big break by fighting off bad guys. Then I’ll reveal that I’m a Technomancer and I am capable of fighting in the front line. If I did that, I’ll not only be a big time hero, I would also earn a shit load of cash via contracts.... fortunately, my big break opened me to the harsh reality of a hero’s incompetence. This forced me to rethink that maybe fame and fortune at the expense of the innocent is not such a good idea.” Said Theo

“Ah… I see.”

The two became silent as they entered Theo’s hideout.

A few meters into the hideout, Theo spoke out loud.

“Bring to my location: Computer”

At his command, one of the car sized drones on the third floor activated and rushed towards Theo.

It stopped right in front of the 2 and transformed into a mobile computer platform with multiple screens, keyboards and fancy buttons.

“I may be a doctor but this is so freaking cool!” said the excited doctor.

“Fu fu fu! I know right! I made this baby with the concept of ‘Cool’ at its design principle. Having a fancy computer is cool and all, but a mobile computer car screams COOL!” Theo boasted. “Well then, let’s see what happened shall we?”

Theo set up a fair bit of surveillance camera around his home because of his cautious personality.

There was nothing wrong with a little surveillance.

He rewinded the video footage until he saw something out of the ordinary.

True enough, he spotted something out of place during the second day when he was comatose.

3 black vans suddenly arrived and about 10 armed men kicked out the residents. Those who resisted were shot dead.

It was a typical territory takeover used by gangs and such.

Normally, the police would be all over these guys. However, that level of competence doesn’t exist outside the main hub of Vermilion City. The police in these parts were corrupt, incompetent and were often the source of many problems.

Even if the people complained, a hostile takeover like this was not enough to move the police into action.

And that’s why people like Theo existed.

First, he hacked into the police data base and searched for the plates on the van.

True enough, all the vans were reported stolen. They were too fancy for a bunch of lowlifes to be in the possession of.

Interesting enough, the Vans belonged to a proxy company that was operated by a large mafia.

The hell were these punks thinking?!

They stole from a mafia?!

Are they mental?! Do they have a death wish?!

Do they even have the brains to think?!

That would explain why they were armed with AK47s. No way a bunch of small time crooks would have such high powered firearms at their disposal.

Never the less, they were as good as dead when the mafia they crossed finds them.

However, Theo wasn’t going to give the mafia the satisfaction they deserved since he’ll be the one doing the pest extermination.

With that in mind, Theo began his preparations.

-:-

A few minutes later, Theo wore a jet black full body power suit.

He made sure to tie the left arm of the power suit tight to avoid it from getting caught on something.

The doctor couldn’t help but marvel at Theo’s power suit.

“Unbelievable…. To think a technomancer could also make Z49 Scout Armor… It may not be top of the line, but this thing could easily fetch millions of Rooks in the black market. ” said the doctor as he poked Theo’s power suit.

The Z49 Scout Armor was something Theo often saw when he went with his father during his janitorial work in the Hero Alliance.

The Z49 were often used by the Hero Alliance’s non-super powered militia. They were often used on smaller operations that didn’t require a hero’s extremely flashy performance.

Like the doctor stated earlier, the Z49 about 2 years obsolete. The current state of the art power suit was the Z58.

Never the less, the Z49 was a thing of mechanical masterpiece. It was made of the light weight, flexible yet extremely durable plasteel. It was capable of amplifying a person’s strength and endurance. Most importantly, it’s not a power guzzling machine like Mechanicus’ power armor.

While it doesn’t have built in weapons, nor was it capable of flight, it was an overwhelmingly powerful armor for people who cant afford the big guns.

Theo filled his holsters with 8 Beretta 92 pistols with silencers and laser sights equipped on each one.

It might be overkill to bring so much guns, but Theo was being cautious. He only had one arm, thus making the act of reloading extremely hard.

While he did equip his belt with a one hand reload mechanism, he wanted to be sure that he had a plan B in the event that he also lost his belt.

“Well then, before I exterminate some pests, can I ask a couple of favors from you doctor?” asked Theo.

“That depends. What are the favors?” replied the Doctor.

“First, the vans and the corpses. Can I ask you to dispose of them? If I did it, the Mafia will eventually hound me for answers. But if you’re a famous underground doctor, then the mafia wont touch you.”

The doctor thought for a bit.

“True. I do know those kids from the mafia who owns the vans. If I give it back to them, they might even pay me….. MWAHAHAHAHA! Leave the corpse and the vans to me!” said the doctor.

“Good. On to the last favor I want to as of you. Please follow me.”

The 2 moved to the third floor and approached a large freezer.

Theo entered the freezer and took out a glass case with a black mechanical spinal column inside it. The doctor gasp at the sight of it.

“You want me to replace your spinal column with a cybernetic one?” asked the doctor

“Not only that, I want you to attach a cybernetic arm and eye later on. Can you do it?”

“Stupid question. Who do you think I am!”

“Good to hear. I can rest easy having the best working on me”

“It’s gonna cost you though”

Theo flinched at the doctor’s words.

If there was one thing he understood in the short time he has known the doctor, it was that the frog faced bastard was extremely greedy. Money before loyalty and all that jazz.

“C-can you place it on my tab for now? I swear I’ll find a way to pay you back!” Theo pleaded desperately.

“Hahaha. Sure, why not. I normally don’t do business on credit, but I have high hopes for you. After you clean up the pest in your house, I’ll replace your spine. Once you make the arm and the eye, just call me and we’ll slip those in.”

“Hahaha. Thanks. Well then, time to clean house. Are you going to join me?” said Theo.

“I’ll be your moral support from a very safe distance.”

“Hahaha. Good to know I have an ugly as hell guardian angel at my back”

-:-

Based on the surveillance cameras Theo installed in the past, there were about 11 people currently in the apartment complex.

10 of them were the thugs that he had to kill.

He wasn’t sure who the other one was, but he’ll put of deciding to kill or not to kill when the time comes.

Theo hid in the shadows near his room. He knew there was no one in his room because of the spy cam installed in it.

Thanks to the upgrades he made to the Z49, he was able to receive video feeds from all of the cameras he has installed straight into his helmet.

Thanks to this, he was able to get a good idea where his enemies were located.

There was 1 outside who acted as a guard. 7 on various rooms of the first floor and 3 on the second floor.

“Well then, let’s hope that my hospital stay didn’t make me too rusty”

The guard was both bored, sleepy and was careless in general. It was like he was asking to die.

There was approximately 7 meters between Theo’s hiding spot and the guard’s current location. Normally, this distance was nothing to Theo.

Theo took aim and immediately realized how crippling the loss of one eye was to a marksman.

He was right handed, thus he needed to look through his right eye in order to aim down the gun barrel. Without his eye, he had a hard time judging the distance or if his gun was even pointed at the right direction.

“I need that artificial eye ASAP”

While Theo knew this would happen, he didn’t expect it to be this bad.

With no choice in the matter, Theo turned on the laser sight on his pistol.

He hated using laser sights because of the chance that his position might be discovered.

Even with the protection of the Z49 Scout Armor, getting hit by a barrage from an AK47 would hurt like hell. He rather not experience getting shot at all.

With that in mind, Theo decided to fight a short yet silent battle against these thugs.

It might be dishonorable, but as a frail human who was missing a few important body parts, Theo had no choice in his means of fighting.

Once again he took aim. The moment he spotted the red dot on the head of the thug, he pulled the trigger.

The thug died without even knowing he was already dead. Thanks to the silencer and the general noisy environment, no one noticed that someone just died.

Theo moved through the shadows and made his way to the room next to his room.

The beauty of low cost housing was the ease of breaking into these rooms. All he needed to do was jam a knife into the side of the door and slowly slide it underneath the bolt that keeps the door close. With a small effort, Theo silently got the door open.

Inside the room was one of the gunman and he was dead drunk.

Truth be told, Theo was losing tension fast.

After the high octane battle with the Black Bible cult, taking on a bunch of drunk thugs was boring.

Never the less, Theo didn’t let his guard down.

He took aim and fired 2 shots into the thug’s head. The first shot was to kill him. The second shot was just for the heck of it.

The next room contained 3 of the armed thugs. This time around, instead of booze, the 3 were flying high as kites with the help of drugs.

Since he didn’t want to disturb their festivities, he silently shot them once in the head. Sweet dreams.

The next few rooms were empty until he got to the final room. The moans of pleasure and the slapping of flesh could be heard from within the room.

It seemed that the occupants of this room were having sex.

As a young man with raging hormones, Theo would be lying if he said he wasn’t interested in watching.

Unfortunately, for the thugs, his desire to kill was much stronger than his lust.

He quietly opened the door and slipped in.

Inside the small prison like room were 2 individuals enjoying some carnal sex. One of them was obviously a thug given the large array of tattoos on his body.

His partner was a female Theo has seen a couple of times in the past. He didn’t know her name, but he was fairly sure that she was the daughter of the landowner of the apartment.

Based on the video feed of the incident a couple of days ago, Theo knew that the landowner was one of the people who were killed.

Mind you, the landowner was a drunkard and a scum, thus Theo had no reason to even give half a rats ass about him.

Never the less, why was his daughter sleeping with her father’s murderer?

Now that he thought about it, wasn’t the landowner at odds with his family?

Hold on…. Was there even a single person that got along well with the landowner?

Theo thought for a bit, but decided to let it slide.

Point was, the landowner’s daughter was in cahoots with the thugs. In short, there was no reason to let her live.

Theo calmly walked towards the couple.

Since the couple was using the missionary position, only the girl saw Theo.

“Watch out!” screamed the girl

But it was too late. Theo gave the man a shiny new hole to breathe in.

“Oh my god! Kenny! Please don’t leave me baby!” the girl turned to Theo with eyes filled with rage. “You killed Kenny! YOU BASTARD!”

Theo aimed his gun at the girl, causing the enraged girl to stiffen in fear.

“P-please don’t kill me. I’ll let you do whatever you want with me. See? I’m fairly confident in my looks” said the girl as she flaunted her naked body.

True enough, she was very beautiful. It came to no surprise why a lot of men would want to sleep with her.

Unfortunately for her, Theo was not easily tempted by sexual pleasure.

“Disgusting” said Theo in a voice that was scrambled in a similar fashion to Crow.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Theo emptied the clip into the girl’s head.

He ejected the empty magazine and holstered the gun on his belt. The auto reload mechanism slid in a fresh magazine into his gun in a matter of seconds.

The bad thing about low cost housing was the thin walls. The girl’s screams was heard by the 3 thugs upstairs.

Footsteps rushed out the room above and made their way down the stair.

“Finally. Some excitement.”

Theo drew a new pistol and prepared for battle.

Theo accessed the camera outside the apartment in order to spy on his incoming enemies.

All there were armed and ready.

The moment they arrived in front of the room where Theo was, he sprang into action.

Theo rammed the door, which slammed into the face of the thug that was standing right in front of it.

Before the other 2 could react, Theo blew the head of the one nearest to him.

“Shit!”

Theo dodge rolled as the third thug fired like a madman.

The third thug recklessness resulted on the death of the first thug as the AK47’s bullets punched through the wooden door and right into the first thug.

Theo dodged desperately as a shower of bullets tore everything in its path.

Theo ran from cover to cover until he heard a dry click from the thug’s gun.

The standard clip of an AK47 contained 30 rounds. The thug probably didn’t know this because he was staring at his gun in confusion.

“You’re out of bullets dumbass.” Said Theo

The thug didn’t even get a chance to touch his next magazine as Theo emptied his entire clip on the poor soul.

And then, there was silence.

“Good job Kid. I was right about you. There’s no way you could be stuck in the assembly line with that level of gun fighting skills.”

The voice of the doctor could be heard from the radio in Theo’s armor. He did give the frog face a means of contacting him just in case of some unforeseen circumstances.

“Bitch please. I may be a bit out of shape, but these guys cant even be considered as a warm up” replied Theo.

“HAHAHA! Good to hear. Never the less, good job my boy. Let’s head to the convenience store and celebrate the beginning of a beautiful friendship. My treat of course”

“*sigh* fine. Let me get changed and I’ll meet you there.”

“Roger that.”

Amidst the noisy area of Vermilion City’s not-so-rich citizens, a partnership was born between a disillusioned young man and a greedy frog faced doctor.

This event might seem irrelevant to the greater scheme of things, but the partnership was the birthplace of an organization that would catapult the lowly humans into a race that even the gods feared.

-:-